why do some get the baptism of the holy spirit sooner than others?

Answer 1

Because some people like to shout gibberish more often than others.

Answer 2

It all depends on when God knows that person is ready for the next step in their relationship with him. We all are at different levels of growth with Him. It take some of us longer to receive the baptism than others. We all dont receive the same gifts either. I have been blessed with tongues interpretations prophetic knowledge and a healing annointing. Also an intercessory calling but i dont walk in that every day. God is still working things out in my life before i can walk in those callings.

Answer 3

The rules of the church determines the age people are baptizes.
Some churches have a pre-baptism for new-Born's and children. some say that children have to be 12 or 13 in order to be baptizes. Some say as new-born or babies can be baptizes. So I guess that the Church is the one with the last say so.

Answer 4

actually it is not jibberish. but being filled with the holy spirit is real. some get it sooner than others because they seek God for it. Also some are not willing to live according to Gods Word and dont fully believe. If you want it and want to be lied by the spirit. then really seek god for it . he wants you to have it.

Answer 5

God gives the baptism when you are spiritually ready to receive it.

Answer 6

IT ALL DETERMINES THEIR FAITH TO RECIEVE-- IT IS GODS WILL THAT WE ALL HAVE THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT -- IT EMPOWERS US AGAINST THE ENEMY SATAN
WE GROW FROM FAITH TO FAITH AND GLORY TO GLORY

Answer 7

Because they are afraid of living and they are afraid of dying.
So they grab onto fairy tales to make them feel better.

Answer 8

Tony Evans tells the story of a man who went to buy a refrigerator he bought the most incredible refrigerator you could imagine it had all the bells and whistles you would expect, and then some it cost thousands of dollars more than a normal refrigerator, but what could you expect for such a fine product? The store delivers the new refrigerator to the man’s home he fills it with all his food, and he’s so excited to have this great new refrigerator.

The next morning he goes into the kitchen to make breakfast, only to find that the milk is spoiled, the ice cream is running out of the bottom of the freezer compartment, and the vegetables are changing color
The refrigerator is not working. So the man calls the store to give them a piece of mind.
The man at the store says, "I don’t understand what’s wrong. Open the door and see if the light comes on"
He opens the door; No light.
"Put your ear up close to the refrigerator and see if you can hear the hum of the motor" No hum.

Then the man says, "There’s a cord at the back or your refrigerator. Check and see if it’s plugged in".
The man looks, and sure enough, it wasn’t plugged in.
so he comes back to the phone and said,
"You’re right, the cord was not plugged in. But for the kind of money I paid for this refrigerator, that shouldn’t matter. This thing should work anyway"
Now that’s sort of a silly story right,
because all of us would say,
well of course you’ve got to plug the thing in.
That’s obvious.

You see, refrigerators are dependent things and no matter how much you pay for it, even though it has all the parts needed to run, it won’t run, without an invisible power source called electricity.
Unless you plug in that cord, the food is gonna spoil
Our spiritual lives will not run without the Holy Spirit’s power.

When God saved us, he gave us all the component parts we needed
to run our spiritual lives,

But we are dependent creatures we weren’t designed to work on our own.
Unless we have the power of the Holy Spirit we can’t produce what our lives are supposed to produce And we’re like that dead refrigerator,
that makes everything spoil.


The key verse of this section is verse 17
Where Paul says,
I ask the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, to give you the Spirit..

Then the rest of the chapter shows
some of the benefits
from the Holy Spirit living in us.

So this morning we’re going to talk about
first, why we should be filled with the Spirit,
then, how to be filled with the Spirit,
and finally, how will that help you, today,
to live your life at work or at home.

In other words, what’s the practical benefit to you
of being filled with the spirit.

Last month U.S. News & World Report reported on a recent survey.

Those who call themselves Christians in the U.S. were asked, "In general, how often would you say you have experienced God’s presence or a spiritual force that felt very close to you?"
The results were:
Never: 10 percent
Once or twice: 17 percent
Several times: 23 percent
Many times: 49 percent

Now these were all people who consider themselves Christians,
yet over half,
have little or no experience of the Holy Spirits power.
Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, said "If there were only one truth I could share with the Christian world, it would be ’how to be filled with the Holy Spirit,’ for there is no single truth that is more important to the believer."

2 Corinthians 1:21
"It is God who gives us the ability to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us and He has identified us as His own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts."
It says God gives us the ability,
He commissions us,
and identifies us as his own,
and he does that all by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts."
You’ve probably heard me talk about how
Christianity is not just a religion,
it’s a relationship.
we can have a personal relationship with God.

Well, what really makes our relationship with God personal is,
when we become a Christian the Holy Spirit comes to live within us.

You can’t get any more personal then that.

If you grew up in church,
you’ve probably heard people say,
Jesus came into my heart,
or I accepted Jesus into my heart.

Well, if you want to be technical about it,
Jesus doesn’t come into your heart, the Holy Spirit does.

But then you study some more and find that it doesn’t make any difference,
because the bible also calls the Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of Christ.
One famous bible teacher made it very simple
by just saying,
The Holy Spirit is Christ in you.

So when we say that Jesus is living in our heart,
or the Holy Spirit lives in us,
we’re saying the same thing.

Now John the Baptist predicted that Jesus would send us the Holy Spirit.

Matt 3:11 John says,
"I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit... (NIV)

Well what does it mean, practically
to be baptized in the Holy Spirit?

Baptism in water means to be immersed in water,
and Baptism in the Holy Spirit means to be immersed,
or under the influence of the Holy Spirit,
or controlled by the Holy Spirit.

And when we’re controlled by the Holy Spirit
we also have the power of the Holy Spirit.

In fact,
Unless we have the power of the Holy Spirit we can’t produce what God wants to produce in our lives.


And this doesn’t just apply to some pastor out preaching on the street.
this doesn’t just apply when we’re sitting in church.

The power of the Holy Spirit
brings blessings to every part of life,
in our families,
at work, when you’re sitting in the staff meeting,
in all of our relationships,
the Spirit brings love and joy and peace and power
into every area of our lives.

"Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was one of the leading scientists and mathematicians in all history.
When I was in college studying engineering,
I had to constantly use Pascal’s equations in my advanced calculus courses.

But he was also a great inventor.
He invented the first calculating machine, the first syringe, the first wrist-watch,
and also the first public bus service.

But the most important moment of Pascal’s life was not when he published any of his mathematical theories,
or when he finished any of his inventions.

The greatest moment in his life
happened on the night of November 23, 1654, He had a was a powerful experience with the Holy Spirit.
It lasted for two hours, and changed his life so much that he wrote down his experience on a parchment,
and for the rest of his life carried the parchment with him
in a pouch tied around his neck:

Let me read you what that parchment said.

The year of grace, 1654, Monday, 23rd November, From about half past ten in the evening until half past twelve…
FIRE
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, …..
Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.
God of Jesus Christ.
My God and Thy God
Forgetfulness of the world and of everything except God
He is to be found only in the ways taught in the Gospel
Grandeur of the human soul
Righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee.
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy
I have fallen from Him
’They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters’
’My God, wilt Thou forsake me?’
May I not fall from Him for ever.
This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only True God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent
Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, I have fallen away: I have fled from Him, denied Him, crucified Him
May I not fall from Him for ever.
We hold him only by the ways taught in the Gospel
Renunciation total and sweet
Total submission to Jesus Christ and to my director
Eternally in joy for a day’s exercise on earth
I will not forget Thy word. Amen."

That kind of passion for God, and for life,
comes only from being filled with the Holy Spirit.


Next question:
How are you filled with the Spirit?

Well, theres 2 misconceptions people have about being filled with the Spirit.

The 1rst misconception is that,
if I’m a Christian, I’m already filled with the spirit.
That’s partially true.
If you’re a Christian, the Holy Spirit does live in you,
we talked about that last week.

But that doesn’t mean you’re filled with Him.

Eph 5:18-20
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

Paul is telling Christians here,
don’t get drunk, but be filled with the Spirit.

Why does he have to tell these Christians,
to be filled with the Spirit?
Because they’re not.

There’s a lot of Christians who have the Holy Spirit living in them,
they’re believers,

but they don’t allow the Holy Spirit to fill them,
so that they’re controlled,
and empowered, and completely guided by the Holy Spirit.

So how are you filled with the Spirit?
The Bible says its very simple.
You ask God.

Now if you look at the New Testament example,
you notice 2 things.

First, the common practice was to have other believers pray for you to receive the Holy Spirit,


2nd, it was usually a separate experience from when they were saved.

Acts 8:14-17 (NIV)
When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

Now I don’t believe that its always a separate experience.

I believe some people can be completely filled with the Holy Spirit when they’re saved.
But I think that’s the exception, not the rule.

So the 1rst misconception is that,
if I’m a Christian, I’m filled with the spirit.

The 2nd misconception is that Once you’ve been filled or baptized by the Holy Spirit,
you stay filled.
That’s not necessarily true either.

When I’m filled with the Spirit,
I’m controlled and influenced by the holy spirit in all I do.

But I can take back control.
I can decide not to do what the Holy Spirit wants.

So that means, after we’ve been filled, then it becomes a process of allowing the Spirit to remain in control of our lives, and letting him continue to empower us.
Let me show you some examples

In Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost,
The bible tells us that
Peter and 120 other Christians,
were filled with the spirit.

That was the first time they were filled.

Then in Acts 4:8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! (NIV)

So it points out that Peter was again filled.

Acts 4:31 (talking about Peter, John, and other disciples)
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. (NIV)

So Peter and the other disciples were filled again.
This happened a number of times
after the initial baptism on the day of Pentecost.

What this tells us is that,
being filled with the spirit is not a “once for all time” thing.

There is a first experience of being filled, or baptized,
but then continuous times of filling afterwards.


BILLY GRAHAM wrote a book called The Holy Spirit.
Let me read you what he says.

I think it proper to say that anyone who is not filled with the spirit is a defective Christian. Paul’s command to the Ephesian Christians, “Be filled with the Spirit” is binding on all of us Christians, everywhere, in every age. There are no exceptions. We must conclude that since we are ordered to be filled with the spirit, we are sinning if we are not filled. And our failure to be filled with the Spirit constitutes one of the greatest sins against the Holy Spirit.
It is interesting to note that the command to be filled with the spirit, actually means to be continuously filled. We are not filled once for all, like a bucket. Instead we are to be filled constantly. It might be translated, Be filled, and keep on being filled.

Why does Billy Graham say that
being filled with the Holy Spirit is so important?


The point is,
When we continually are living in the Holy Spirits filling,
that’s when we get new power for life,
and new energy for life.

The key to living life with continual spiritual power and energy,
is to continually let the Holy Spirit give you power,
and not try to do it on your own power.

So how are we filled with the Spirit?
Obviously you have to ask, and we talked about how the Bible example is that
people would pray for others
to receive the filling,

But I believe there’s more to it than that,
I believe theres some attitudes that are important to being filled with the spirit.

I’ll mention two of those, and they’re from Charles Stanley’s book, the Wonderful Spirit-Filled Life.

Charles Stanley says that the first attitude that’s important,
to be filled with the Spirit is TOTAL DEPENDENCE
Listen to what Stanley writes:
"The Spirit-filled life begins once we are absolutely and thoroughly convinced that we can do nothing apart from the indwelling strength of the Holy Spirit…The Spirit-filled life begins with an overwhelming realization that we are absolutely helpless and hopeless apart from the empowerment of the Holy Spirit…Until then, we will always be out there doing things for God in our own strength"
Let me ask you, have you reached that point of total dependence in your life?
Where you’ve realized that without God’s help, you can do nothing?
First is total dependence.
the Second attitude that’s important,
to be filled with the Spirit is TOTAL SURRENDER.
Until we surrender to the Spirit’s control in our lives, until we come to the place where we are willing to put all of our lives under His control, we won’t be filled with the Spirit.
To be filled with the Spirit means that we are controlled by the Spirit,
and in order to be controlled by the Spirit, we have to surrender everything to him

You see, it’s impossible to live the Christian life on our own.
If we could pull it off, God would be unnecessary.
but in John 15:5, Jesus said, "Apart from me, you can do nothing"
The Christian life is a supernatural life, and we need supernatural help to live it.
We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit Just before World War 2
a school fire in Itasca, Texas, took the lives of 263 children. One of the worst tragedies at a school, ever.
It was devastating to the town.

After the war, they built a new school that featured "the finest sprinkler system in the world."
The whole town was proud of this system. Honor students guided visitors on tours of the new school to show them the finest, most advanced sprinkler system money could buy.
Never again would Itasca have a school building burn.
7 years later, the population was growing
so they built a new wing onto the school,

When they began construction,
and uncovered the sprinkler system pipes,
they discovered that their brand new, state-of-the art sprinkler system they had paid so much for had never been connected. A lot of us are trying to live our lives like that.
We try to live for God,
we try to do the right things,
but we’re not connected into the power of the Holy Spirit,
and then we wonder why we burn out.

Think of the disciples if anyone could live effective Christian lives without the Spirit, it was them
They were trained by Jesus himself. they had seen lame men walk, blind men see, and the dead rise
They knew about the Father and the Son they had even performed miracles themselves. nobody could have been more convinced, more motivated.

But they were still missing something.
That’s why in Acts 1:4, Jesus told them, "Don’t leave Jerusalem,
don’t do anything else, until you’ve received the gift of the Holy Spirit!" You see, living the Christian life isn’t just difficult, it’s impossible.
You can’t live the Christian life apart from the help of the Holy Spirit.

If the disciples couldn’t do it, you can’t either!
That’s why so many Christians live defeated, discouraged lives. We can’t do it in our own strength.
Now the rest of this chapter
talks about the power that comes,
when we’re filled witt the spirit,
and tells about the results in our lives
that come from being filled with the Spirit.

There are 3 major areas of our lives
where we need to be filled by the Spirit.

First, the Holy Spirit gives me Power
1. TO KNOW GOD.

verse 16,17
I remember you in my prayers and ask the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, to give you the Spirit, who will make you wise and reveal God to you, so that you will know him.

It says
The Spirit makes us wise and revals God to us.

You can’t understand the things of God
without the help of the Holy Spirit.


How many of you saw the movie, The Matrix?

That movie actually has a lot of spiritual significance.

In the Matrix, the real world has been taken over by computers
that keep humans in bondage by creating a false reality in their minds.
The computers electronically feed a virtual reality into their brain. The humans think they are free, but they are actually entombed in pods where their bodies are used as an energy source.

A few of the humans have escaped their pods and are battling the machines. But unlike the computer-induced dreamland (called the Matrix),
the real world is full of sweat, stress, and combat with the computers at every turn.

In one scene, the leader of escaped humans, who’s named Morpheus, has contacted a person whose mind is still controlled by the Matrix. The man’s name is Neo (played by Keanu Reeves).

Morpheus says "Let me tell you why you’re here,". "You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain—but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life. That there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I’m talking about?"

"The Matrix?" Neo asks.
"Do you want to know what it is?" asks Morpheus. Neo nods. "The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth."

"What truth?" asks Neo.
"That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage. Born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch—
a prison for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."
Of course, Neo decides to follow Morpheus,
and He begins to see the world for how it really is. He starts to see that there’s a war on,
between good and evil,
that he’d never been able to see before.

The truth is,
all of us are in the middle of a war like that.
Its not a matrix, generated by computers,
it’s a spiritual war.

And none of us are able to clearly see it,
because the spiritual world that’s all around us
is invisible to us.

You cant see the Holy Spirit.
But just because you can’t see him with your eyes
doesn’t mean he’s not there.

What that does mean is that
we need more than our physical eyes to see
and to understand life.

Eph 1:18 NAS
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened,

We need spiritual eyes, in our heart,
and we get those spiritual eyes by being filled with the spirit.

1 Cor 2:11-12 NLT
…no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world’s spirit) so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.
When we live under the influence of the Holy Spirit, He actually shares with us
the thoughts of God,
so that we can start to think like God thinks.

That’s real wisdom,
and that helps us really know God.

2nd, the Holy Spirit gives me Power to
2) See God’s Purpose.

Eph. 5:18
I ask that your minds may be opened to see his light, so that you will know what is the hope to which he has called you, how rich are the wonderful blessings he promises his people,

Notice the word called.

God has called each one of us to follow him,
and he’s given us each a purpose or hope.
Its our reason for following him,
for doing what we do.

But we can’t see it without being filled with the Spirit.


Fred Rogers, the Mister Rogers of childrens television
said something very wise,
Life is deep and simple, and what our society gives us is shallow and complicated.

Our purpose in life,
is deep, but simple.
Its deep enough that we don’t see it,
without the holy Spirit opening our eyes,
but once we see it, its simple.

And once we see our purpose,
and start to follow it,
we open ourselves up to all of God’s blessings in our life.

how rich are the wonderful blessings he promises his people.


The Holy Spirit gives me the power to know God,
and to see God’s purpose,
3rd, the Holy Spirit gives me Power to
3) Do the Supernatural.

A well known author said,
Nobody can be indwelt by the Spirit of God and keep that Spirit to himself. Where the Spirit is, he flows forth. And where there is no flowing forth, he is not there.
If the Holy Spirit is filling you,
and giving you power to live,
it’ll come out, it’ll show.

And one of the ways it shows,
is through the supernatural.


Eph. 1:19-23 …and how very great is his power at work in us who believe. This power working in us is the same as the mighty strength which he used when he raised Christ from death and seated him at his right side in the heavenly world.
Notice it says
how very great is his power at work in us

That’s the way God designed our world,
so that His awesome power
would be available to work in us,
to help us in our lives.

We may not see that power at work very often,
we may not see the supernatural,
but that doesn’t mean its not there,
that doesn’t mean its not available to us.

In fact,
God wanted us to use his supernatural power so much,
that he gave us a list of different ways
that supernatural power works,

and he told us,
I’ve given you each some of these abilities.
Now you just have to learn how to use them.

1 Cor 12: NIV
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
That just means that God has given each Christian,
at least one gift,
to help build up the whole church.

To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,

(message of knowledge is like when one of our leaders stands up here at the end of the service and says something like,
there’s someone here with problems in your left elbow, you’ve injured it, and God wants us to pray for you.)

to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
God wants to work his supernatural power
through you and me.

One of our biggest errors,
is assuming that this kind of thing
just happens on Sunday mornings, if at all.

Not long ago, In a "60 Minutes" interview with Ed Bradley, Denzel Washington spoke about a crucial moment in his life. Washington was in college at the time and he had all kinds of questions about his future. He was sitting in a chair in his mother’s beauty salon, when he saw an elderly lady in the mirror.
She stared at Denzel and suddenly spoke to his mother, saying, "Give me a piece of paper; I have a word for [Denzel]." On the paper she wrote, "You will speak to millions."
Denzel asked his mother “who is that woman? His mother said, "She’s one of the oldest women at Mt. Vernon [which was Denzel’s church], and she has the gift of prophecy."
Washington told 60 minutes that that day was a defining moment in his life. Even though Washington is one of Hollywood’s busiest actors, his faith is an essential part of his life; he prays and attends church regularly.

So God used an old woman in a beauty shop
supernaturally,
to impact someones life.

And God can use any of us like that.
Because the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual gifts, giving us power to work for God,
and minister to others.

Now our motivation for receiving the Holy Spirit,
is not to speak in tongues,
or prophesy,
or heal people,
our motivation is just that we want to be everything that God wants us to be,
we want to be controlled by his Spirit,
we don’t want to miss out,
on the blessings that he has for us.


Let me close with a story:
I grew up in a Baptist church, and committed my life to Christ when I was about 7 years old. But even though I went to church, I was like Billy Graham described, I had very little capacity for spiritual things. There were a lot of areas in my life that weren’t under God’s control.

When I was about 16 one of my friends invited me to go to a Bible Study.
It met in the basement of this Catholic Church,
though there were people of all backgrounds there.
(Prayed to receive HS)
(Life Changed)

That’s what I want for every person here.
Is to have the same joy,
and fulfillment,
and peace,
and purpose,
and power for living
that only comes from being filled with the Spirit.